


Until Dawn

by gardnerhill



Series: 221b Ficlets by Gardnerhill [92]
Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Comfort, Community: watsons_woes, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 13:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20046793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: Watson knows exactly how to thank Holmes for tending him.





	Until Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2019 July Watson's Woes Promptfest prompt #30: **Hurt's Over, Time to Comfort: **Watson's been whumped (off-screen). How does Holmes and/or another take care of the situation afterward?

Afternoon sun filled the room. I sat by my bed, watching Watson's chest rise and fall with no coughing fit nor hitch of pain afterward.

"You must have more interesting things to watch, _mon cher_." Spoken without a cough nor a groan.

"Can't think of any. Your ribs?"

My doctor inhaled, deeply. Wonderful. "Sore. But mending at last. No fear of them piercing the lungs now." He was already sinking back into sleep – weeks of recuperating from a severe beating and a bad cold that had threatened to combine to fatal effect had robbed him of rest for too long.

Weariness sank down on me like heavy hands on my shoulders. I no longer needed fear jostling John; I eased in alongside to regain the doubled familiarity of my own bed and my beloved spouse, and do not remember closing my eyes.

I was awakened not by coughing and suppressed sounds of pain but by warm lips on my own. Still half asleep, I responded automatically to the familiarity of blessed routine; darkness greeted my eyes as the kiss ended. "What time…?"

"Half two." Quiet but strong, no longer a fearful whisper lest coughing be triggered. Another kiss; an embrace. "Let us greet the sunrise together, my dear Beatrice."

Hours ahead of us...

Joy filled me. "Lead on, my dear Benedick."


End file.
